Broadsheet papers can be difficult to handle on the train, but they have their virtues. One, underappreciated in a country where they're associated with calm, upmarket reporting, is that they can shout louder than almost anything else.

American papers were masters of the form back when they still had bitter competition – the San Francisco Chronicle, fighting for its life against William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, greeted Pearl Harbor with the single, half-page word "WAR!", although it quietened down slightly for later editions:

This morning, Britain's best-selling quality paper celebrated the arrival of Conservative government with some gigantic headline type. From the top of the "C" on Cameron to the bottom of the comma, today's headline is more than two inches high – at least 150pt, for those of you keeping score in Indesign.

In terms of overall acreage, this is not exceptional for the Telegraph's current era. Even Nick Clegg's bank account, exposed over three lines last month, was bigger:

But for sheer font size – the single-line competition, as it were – I can't find evidence that the Telegraph has ever considered anything bigger news.

Cameron is bigger than the 7 July 2005 London bombings, back towards the beginning of headline inflation at the paper:

He is far, far bigger than America getting its first black president:

That was an early edition, obviously, and the news wasn't quite certain. But Cameron is still both bigger and bolder than Obama come inauguration day:

He's even bigger than the biggest scoop of the decade, day one of the Telegraph's expenses files:

For a full picture, however, you have to judge a story on what it keeps off the front page, as well as how big its headline is. Both the expenses story and the Clegg expose eliminated all the Telegraph's blurbs for other features. Important and welcome as he is for the paper, Cameron is not quite big enough to warrant ignoring England's World Cup squad.

Update: A highly informed commenter going by the neame of BishBosh48 notes that there has been one larger Telegraph headline in recent times. It came on day six of the expenses saga, 13 May 2009, as the Tories responded to the revelations and the Lib Dems took their turn for exposure. Makes interesting reading today...